Perspective
by evieeden
Summary: Bella gets an unexpected visitor in hospital. Advent story written for 5th December.


**Happy 5****th**** December everyone. I hope you'll all enjoy this story, especially as I've never written Old Quil before.**

**Lots of love and thanks go to the awesome idealskeptic, who betad this for me. And as always, I don't own Twilight unfortunately.**

**Perspective**

Lying in the hospital bed in Forks, I rolled my eyes as there was yet another knock at the door.

I had been transferred back from Phoenix – at the expense of the Cullens, of course – once I had managed to convince my mom that I really was happy living with Charlie. I had hoped that I'd be moving back on my own two feet, but the doctors were concerned that between my head injury, blood loss and broken leg, I'd end up suffering further complications. So I was confined to my bed for now for 'observations'.

So far the only people observing me were the steady stream of visitors I'd had since I returned. Edward and the rest of the Cullens were constantly popping by, most of my friends from school had come by bearing all kinds of fruit, chocolate, flowers and a sneaky bottle of beer from Tyler who'd shrugged apologetically at the offering. Even Lauren had set aside her normal dislike for me to visit – that was a big surprise and actually made me think that maybe I'd misjudged the other girl.

Billy and Jacob had stopped by one late Monday afternoon, Jake with his usual beaming grin. Billy hadn't smiled though; instead he looked more worried than I'd ever seen him, especially when he had run his eyes over my visible injuries. I had remembered his warnings then about the Cullens, but he didn't repeat them, not in front of Charlie. The memory of the look he had given me right before he left was still unsettling me. He had stared at me as if he had seen a ghost. I didn't know how to take that look so I tried to push it out of my mind.

It was kind of nice though.

In Phoenix and all our other homes, it had just been me and Renee. We rarely got close to our neighbours or stayed anywhere long enough to keep friendships going. I hadn't realised before just how isolated I had been before moving back to live with Charlie.

Hell, my room was completely covered in Get Well Soon cards that I had received from most of the town.

It was humbling and it was amazing. And it made me think.

So many people had been so kind and made the effort; I felt like as soon as I was walking, or hobbling, again, I should start trying to reach out to those people too.

Don't get me wrong, I loved all the Cullens, but I had got caught up in their world so easily, maybe I needed to get some balance back a little bit.

They had only just left ten minutes before, so despite the town's new love for me and my new respect for them, I really didn't feel up to more visitors.

I had promised myself to try harder though, so I plastered a smile on my face and called out. "Come in."

My smile slowly vanished as I took in the man before me.

Stooped and wizened, he was hunched over a walking stick and carried a bunch of grapes in his spare hand. I felt sure that I had seen him before somewhere, but as I racked my brains for the elusive memory, I really couldn't identify him. His dark skin marked him out as Quileute, but the only people I had met from the reservation recently were around my age, Jacob and his friends. Which meant that I must have seen him sometime when visiting Charlie before during the summer.

"Well well, little Bella Swan. What a mess you've got yourself into this time."

Shuffling over to the chair next to my bed, he sat down and smacked him lips together.

"Don't just sit there staring at me, girl. Didn't your mother ever teach you manners?" He laughed then, a rough cackle that ended on a wheeze. "Don't suppose she did. Renee was never that hot on etiquette even when she was a teenager."

Bella head span. "I'm sorry, but...do I know you?"

He guffawed again. "Yeah, been a while since you seen me last. You must've been - what? Ten? Eleven? – last time I saw you."

A memory leapt to the front of my mind suddenly – an old man spinning stories around a campfire, throwing different coloured sand into the flames.

"You're Old Quil," I blurted out.

"Haha, that's right, girl. Betcha didn't think I'd still be alive."

I had to admit that the old man from my memories barely looked like he would survive another day, let alone another seven years.

However, even though I now recognised him, I still had no clue why he would be visiting me.

"So, you've got yourself into a right mess haven't you, girl?"

I kept silent, unsure what to make of that statement.

"Messing around with vampires and the like."

My jaw dropped. That was the last thing I had expected him to say.

Old Quil leaned forward and peered at me, absently popping a grape in his mouth. "Any of those injuries a bite mark?"

Still stunned, I nodded slowly, my hand coming up to cover the bandage on my wrist.

"Hmph." He pulled a face. "You're not dead though, or one of _them_, so I guess your doctor friend must've helped."

"He... he sucked the venom out," I explained numbly. "Edward did," I clarified.

Quil grunted in acknowledgement, but I barely noticed, too shocked by his upfront questions.

Logically, I knew that the Quileutes didn't like the Cullens and that they thought they were somehow related to the Cold Ones of the legends. I also knew that some of them, Billy Black in particular, knew that for a fact, rather than just suspected. He had hinted as much that time on my porch when he had tried to warn me against continuing my relationship with Edward.

I had never had someone acknowledge outright the existence of vampires like that before. Even Edward and the rest of the family merely hinted and inferred towards their supernatural nature.

"Why are you looking at me like that, girl?" Quil snapped. "Heard you had a brain injury – did they conk you on the head hard enough to turn you dumb?"

I closed my open mouth with a snap, swallowing hard before I replied. "No, no. I just... I didn't know anyone knew..." I glanced around the room. "...You know, about the Cullens."

Quil frowned at me. "Huh. I thought you and Billy Black had already had a talk about this." He popped another grape into his mouth. "At least that's what he told me."

Well, I guessed that explained why the tribe's shaman had decided to show up randomly at my bedside. Although I wasn't sure that I wanted to hear any more vitriol against Edward. I already had Charlie breathing down my neck, thinking that Edward was the one who had put me in hospital down in Phoenix.

"We talked," I told Quil shortly. "Well, he hinted at the truth and I understood him."

Old Quil chortled merrily. "Black's an old fool. I bet he hemmed and hawed and tried to make it all mystical. Like life and death depended on you not seeing your boy." Another grape disappeared.

I chewed on my lower lip. "Something like that."

Quil chewed thoughtfully. "I never understood that, the secrecy and all. Especially once you already know everything anyway. So I'll say it straight to you, because I think you'll appreciate that more than hints and whispers. You're a dead girl, Bella Swan."

I sucked in a sharp breath. He had said he'd speak plainly and he'd definitely done that. No warnings, no threats to tell my father, just a matter of fact statement. But it shocked me more than I'd thought, especially the words. This wasn't a warning about the Cullens; this was a prediction about my fate.

"What?"

"You heard me." Quil sat back comfortably in the chair, unconcerned. "You know what I said. You're dead, or might as well be. I don't know why you're looking so surprised."

"I'm... I..." I couldn't get my thoughts in order. "But Edward saved me. The Cullens saved me!" I said more urgently.

Old Quil cackled again. I was really starting to hate that laugh.

"You think because you're safe and snug in your bed now that you're going to stay that way forever, girl?" he rasped. "One way or another, you're going to die at that boy's hands. I've seen it," he tapped the side of his head with one finger.

His blunt words and tone of voice scared me a little, but still I tried to protest.

"He won't hurt me, none of the Cullens will hurt me. They're not like that."

Quil ate another grape, tilting his head to one side, considering. "I'll admit they're not like other Cold Ones we've come across before." He shot me a sharp look. "When you were rooting around in Jacob Black's brain for information on the Cold Ones, did he tell you about the spirit warriors too?"

I blushed. I hadn't realised that anyone else knew how I had flirted pathetically with Jake down at First Beach to get information. I didn't think Jacob would've told anyone, but then, it seemed that Old Quil had his own way of knowing stuff. It was still embarrassing to admit to though.

Old Quil was still waiting for an answer so I shook my head.

"No. He didn't say anything about spirit warriors. Just that the Cullens were found hunting on tribal land and his great-grandfather who was the chief at the time made a treaty with them: they would stay off the reservation if the tribe didn't expose what they were."

He sniffed. "I'm glad to hear young Black wasn't so overcome by the pretty girl that he that spilled _all_ our secrets."

I felt a dull flush travelling up my cheeks again.

"Still," he continued, "there's no point in only knowing half the story. You've already proved yourself capable of keeping secrets, so I don't think we have to worry about that."

He looked at me speculatively and I couldn't force myself to meet that perceptive gaze. My eyes fell to the sheets of the bed and I plucked the fabric absently.

"So." Another grape disappeared. "Spirit warriors are the tribe's protectors. Taha Aki was the first, but there were others after. They change in body and soul so that our people are protected from the Cold Ones. Ah ah ah..." He held up a hand when I went to protest at the mention of the Cold Ones. "Hold your tongue, girl, and let me speak."

I shut my mouth again.

"Spirit warriors," he continued, "are the men who become wolves. When the Cullens came here last, our warriors took their alternate form to protect us all. My father was one of those warriors, part of Ephraim Black's pack. Now that the Cullens have returned again, new warriors are emerging to protect the tribe once more."

My mind raced. Men who changed into wolves to protect the tribe? Like, werewolves?

"Anyway, that's not important." Quil waved a dismissive hand. "What's important is that they were the ones who made the treaty with your Cullens. My old man, he told me all about them, and I've seen what they've done, both now and then. They're different from others of their kind, that's true enough, and although I'd never let him operate on me himself, I know the doctor's done a lot of good work."

He laughed that rasping laugh again and then coughed, thumping his chest.

His expression turned serious. "But they ain't human, girl. They ain't like us. No matter what they've told you. No matter what they believe."

This was a familiar argument. I wasn't used to having it with someone other than Edward, but the old familiar defences came back.

"They're good!" I stated passionately. "They try their best to fight against their nature, -"

"But they don't always succeed, do they?" he interrupted archly.

"Huh?" I frowned at him.

"They don't always succeed," he repeated. "They claim to not prey on humans, but they have certain...indiscretions."

I couldn't argue against that, and I wouldn't lie. Old Quil was being honest with me and it only seemed right that I should be truthful in return.

Edward had told me before, only he didn't use the same word. He called them slips, rather than indiscretions. I didn't know about all of them, but I knew that Jasper had struggled in the past and that Emmett had met and attacked both of his singers.

A shiver ran down my spine and Old Quil caught it.

"So you know then, at least part of it anyway." He nodded and ate another grape. "How did they dress it up for you?"

"Excuse me?"

"How did they explain it away," he clarified. "It's not easy to doll up murder, so how did they explain it to you?"

Doll up murder.

The words pounded through my skull, stark and unforgiving. In all the time I had spent with the Cullens, I had never thought of their occasional lapses in diet as murder before.

Stubbornness made me leap to defend them still. "They do their best."

Quil hissed sharply between his teeth. "You think that matters, girl? That they try their best? You think that makes it any easier for the people involved? You're an idiot if you do."

He leaned back and studied me.

"All those mistakes they make, all those indiscretions – those are all people, girl. They all had families, friends, lovers... They had lives and they deserved those lives a hell of a lot more than your precious Cullens deserve theirs. Your Cold Ones are dead, they had their chance a long time ago and now all they do is prolong their existence by stealing other people's chances."

I was trembling at the chance in his voice, no longer joking or even mocking, he was now deadly serious. The worst part was that he was right. I couldn't argue with him, couldn't defend Edward or his family. There was no defence, no matter how I tried to reconcile the situation with what I had been told, with what I believed.

"They might run away every time one of them gets a bit too thirsty – move on and start again – but the devastation they leave behind can't be as easily swept under the rug and forgotten." He paused briefly. "And that's not me saying that as a Quileute, that's me saying that as an old man who's seen something of the world."

My shivering was getting worse. "Why are you telling me this?"

He sighed heavily. "Because I think that you're a very young girl and that romance can make fools of us all."

I went to protest that loving Edward hadn't made me stupid, but he didn't give me a chance to speak.

"Sometimes we love someone so much and want to believe in them so badly, that we're blind to their faults. Whispers about old histories and warnings about possible danger won't make a difference. Billy Black's got two daughters – he should know better than to try that. But I know a lot about life and a lot about secrets, and I know enough about your Cullens. What you need, Bella Swan, is facts – the straight-up unvarnished truth – and I don't think anyone's given that to you yet, otherwise you wouldn't be in this position now."

"You want me to break up with him," I said dully.

He chortled again and took the last few grapes from the pack, cramming them into his mouth at once. I waited for him to finish chewing.

"Of course I want you to break up with him, girl, but it's not about what I want, is it? I think a lot of us would sleep easier at night knowing that we're not going to have to lie to your daddy later about why his baby girl's been found dead in the woods. But who am I to tell you about love, huh?"

For the first time since arriving, he broke his gaze. His eyes wandered towards the window where rain pounded against the glass.

"What I want," he spoke again, his voice taking on an eerie edge, "is for you to know everything, because only then can you make the right decision. That doesn't necessarily mean that you should leave your boyfriend. I mean, that would be what I would wish, but it's not my relationship and I don't have the right to make that decision for you. But there's nothing so frustrating as watching someone do the wrong thing for them because they don't have all the facts."

He looked directly at me once more. He must have noticed the look on my face - I imagined it was a cross between confused, shocked and miserable - because he sighed again and then pushed himself to his feet, throwing the now-empty packet of grapes in the bin.

"I should be off; you look tired."

I nodded silently. I was tired, but more than that, I was exhausted from trying to work out everything he had told me in my head.

He paused by the door to my room.

"Come see me when you're not in this godforsaken place anymore. We'll talk and I'll tell you everything you want to know... everything I know."

It was an offer I couldn't refuse, especially now that I recognised that I would only get carefully edited information from Edward and the Cullens. I knew they did it to protect me, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised that I wanted to make informed choices regarding my time with them.

Especially given what had happened with James and the other nomads.

"Thank you. I will," I replied.

Old Quil nodded and then smiled at me.

"You remind me of my Molly, you know. She was a Swan too – your grandfather Geoffrey's sister, although I don't think you ever met either of them. But you're a lot like her."

My mouth had fallen open again. I had family still alive out on the reservation? Charlie had never said anything.

"She was as bull-headed as a frog too. Always thought she knew best, even when she was younger than you are now."

"I didn't know," I croaked out. "Charlie never told me."

"Well, it was frowned upon," the old man explained. "What with me being from the reservation and her being a white woman. People don't like what's different. They don't understand it, so they run their mouths when they shouldn't. Bit like people with you and your boy."

He laughed longer this time.

"So, no, I'm not going to tell you to leave him, because I would never have left my Molly. But I'm telling you to sit down and have a serious think about what you're doing before you throw yourself into it wholeheartedly."

He swung the door open and the sudden noise of the hospital corridors made me flinch. I hadn't realised how engrossed I'd been, sitting here talking with Old Quil.

"Like I said, girl, come visit me when you're out of here. I'll tell you the rest of the histories and you can meet your cousin." He sniggered. "I'll bet he'll falling over himself like an idiot when he realises he's related to such a pretty girl."

He gave me an over-the-top leering wink that made me giggle and with a wave, disappeared, shutting the door behind him.

He left me with a lot to think about, but as I punched my pillow to try and make it slightly more comfortable than a pile of rocks, I thought that maybe that was a good thing.

Edward and I had only been together for a short time and it felt like during that whole time, I was too busy running from one disaster to another to stop and find out what kind of world I was getting into. Clearly it was one in which vampires existed amongst other supernatural creatures, like these Quileute spirit warriors.

I could find out though. And I would find out.

I wanted to know... Everything.


End file.
